Baptistic Theologies 6:1 (2014)

2014·4.6 MB·English

by  International Baptist Theological Study Centre Amsterdam

Baptistic Theologies

Editorial Board
The Revd Dr Keith G Jones
The Revd Docent Dr Parush R Parushev
Dr Lina Andronovienė
The Revd Professor Dr Ivana Noble
Dr Tim Noble
The Revd Dr Ian M Randall

International Consultant Editors
Professor John H Y Briggs, Oxford University
Professor Otniel Bunaciu, Bucharest University
The Revd Dr Stephen R Holmes, St Andrew’s University
The Revd Dr Craig R Evans, Acadia University
Dr Curtis Freeman, Duke University
Professor Nancey Murphy, Fuller Seminary

Publication – Twice each year

Editorial Office
International Baptist Theological Seminary
Nad Habrovkou 3, Jenerálka, Praha 6, CZ 164 00

ISSN 1803 – 618X

Publisher
Mezinárodní baptistický teologický seminář
Evropské baptistické federace, o.p.s.
Nad Habrovkou 3, 164 00 Praha 6, Česká Republika

This periodical is indexed in the ATLA Religion Database® and it is also
included in the full-text ATLASerials® (ATLAS®) collection.
Both are products of the American Theological Library Association, 300 S.
Wacker Dr., Suite 2100, Chicago, IL 60606, E-mail: [email protected],
Website: http://www.atla.com.
2015 Nordenhaug Lectures
VU Amsterdam on Monday 2nd November 2015
Delivered by Dr David P. Gushee
Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, Director of the Center for Theology
and Public Life Mercer University, Atlanta & Macon, Georgia. Widely regarded as one of the
leading moral voices in American Christianity, he is the author or editor of 20 books and
hundreds of articles in his field, including Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, Kingdom
Ethics, The Sacredness of Human Life. He will deliver three lectures on the Monday on the
theme of ‘What it means to say that human life is sacred’
What it means to say that
human life is sacred…
1. Sacredness and Christian
Scripture
2. Sacredness and Christian
tradition
3. Sacredness and
contemporary application

The lectures will be followed by an IBTSC Conference on ‘Conflicting
Convictions’ on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th of November in Baptist House
Amsterdam. This conference will explore disagreements among Christians on
‘matters that matter’ and responses to such.
Call for papers from biblical, historical, theological, and practical perspectives
until Monday 15 June 2015. Possibilty of publication in IBTSC Journal. Contact
Stuart Blythe, for further details [email protected]
While there is no charge for the lectures or conference those attending and participating in the
conference will be required to meet own travel, accommodation, and subsidence costs in
Amsterdam.
iii

Baptistic Theologies
Volume 6, No. 1
Spring 2014
Contents

Editorial iv
Attending to Global Christianity: I
Hospitality as Creating Space for the Other 1
Cathy Ross
Attending to Global Christianity: II
Attentiveness as Creating Space for Hospitality 12
Cathy Ross
The baptist Vision 23
James Wm. McClendon, Jr.

THIS AS THAT: Friendly Amendments to James McClendon’s
“baptist” Vision 36
Barry Harvey
Carrying out the Theological Task in a Baptistic Way 53
Parush R. Parushev
Willem Zuurdeeg and the Concept of Convictional Theology 72
David McMillan
Convictional Theology as Mapping Moral Space 81
Henk Bakker
Athol Gill (1937-1992): Incarnational Disciple 98
Stuart Blythe

Book Review 119
iv Baptistic Theologies 6:1 (2014)

Editorial
Readers of our journal have noticed that this volume is coming with a
significant delay. The Editorial Board of Baptistic Theologies offers sincere
apologies for the inconveniences caused by the postponement. It was largely
due to the relocation of IBTS to Amsterdam. In its journey over the years
Baptist Theological Seminary, now the International Baptist Theological
Study Centre, moved from Rüschlikon in the vicinity of Zürich, where the
earliest Anabaptist communities were gathering, through Prague, where the
earliest Reformers led by Jan Hus and Petr Chelčický were trying to reform
the Catholic church from within, to the town which offered hospitality and
welcome to the British dissenters to form the earliest Baptist community.
Led by John Smyth and Thomas Helwys they gathered for worship in 1609
in part of the East India Bakehouse, in Bakkerstraat, a building owned by a
Mennonite Jan Munter. The original bakery was probably located behind the
present-day Amstel Street 120 in Amsterdam (Ian Randall, Communities of
Conviction: Baptist Beginnings in Europe). In changing times, cultures,
languages and context, IBTS Centre continues keeping up vibrantly the
legacy of experimenting in Christian and specifically Baptist
internationalism in learning and research (Carol Woodfin, An Experiment in
Christian Internationalism: A History of the European Baptist Theological
Seminary). The collection of essays in this issue of the journal is a good
example of this commitment.
Regular readers of this journal may have noticed that it has on several
occasions included the texts of the two major lecture series sponsored in
alternate years by IBTS, the Nordenhaug and Hughey Lectures. In this
volume we are honoured to publish the texts of two of the Nordenhaug
Lectures delivered last November by Dr. Cathy Ross. The overall theme of
her lecture-series was “Attending to the Global Christianity: Hospitality and
Mission” relating organically Christian mission work in the globalised world
with the venerated but often not hold firm to Christian virtue of hospitality.
Her two lectures published in this issue reflect on hospitality as a metaphor
for mission in our world today. Dr. Ross looks at such themes as: welcome
of guest and stranger, the gift of sight, the importance of nourishment,
attentiveness, presence and marginality.
The rest of the materials in this issue are papers read and discussed
at the international conference on convictional theologies, celebrating the
theological heritage of the late Prof. James Wm. McClendon Jr. It was hosted
by the IBTS Centre on 04-06 November 2014 in Amsterdam. It is fitting for
the occasion to begin this collection with an essay of McClendon himself.
We decided to publish an earlier account of his understanding of baptist with
small b as a distinguished stream of being Christians in the line of the Radical
Editorial v

Reformation with distinct identity marks. The paper was delivered originally
as the graduation address at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Rüschlikon
in 1985 and it is deposited in IBTS Centre’s archives. McClendon argues for
a unique narrative biblical hermeneutics or scriptural reading strategy of the
baptists – the baptist vision captured in the motto ‘this is that’. His quest has
been for an understanding of the baptist idea, its organising theme or vision.
For him the best expression of that idea is one that incorporates other, partial
expressions, yet displays the uniqueness of this distinctive baptist variety of
Christian faith.
In his essay Barry Harvey examines several discrepancies in the
McClendon’s theological vision. Harvey insists that hermeneutical principle
mentioned above perpetuates a troublesome ambiguity in the univocal force
that McClendon attributes to the copula ‘is’. Harvey offers instead to
rephrase it as ‘this as that’. He contests McClendon’s claim that the ‘is’ is
‘immediate’. According to him, it is problematic, because it opens up the
possibility of an unmediated connection to Jesus. Such an unmediated
relationship, he maintains, does not treat adequately the fact that most
Christians are Gentiles and not Jews. Harvey also raises a question about the
project of denominational or confessional-specific theologies, which he
believes is on a collision course with the ecumenical aspirations of uniting
Christianity.
Parush Parushev on his part affirms James McClendon’s claim that
baptistic communities, which the Baptists are a representation of, constitute
a distinguished form of Christian life with distinct hermeneutics of the
biblical narrative guided by the baptistic vision. This vision provides
necessary and sufficient scope for an authentic baptistic theology to take
shape. The baptistic way of theologising is defined as communal,
convictional and contextual. The vector of theologising takes its direction
from the lived-out or primary theology of the gathering, intentional,
convictional community and points to the scholarly theological discourse.
David McMillan’s paper demonstrates the significance of the work of
the late Dutch theologian Willem F. Zuurdeeg for the later work of James
Wm. McClendon Jr. and James M. Smith as they developed the concept of
convictions in the hope of contributing a means of addressing convictional
conflicts. The paper also provides a summary of McClendon and Smith’s
critique and development of Zuurdeeg’s thinking.
Henk Bakker set himself to investigate the intertwining of
convictional theology with the abstract concept of moral space. In his view
the development of convictional types of faith enhance the awareness of
moral space for the church to live by? He advocates that the convictive
knowledge of a Christian believer is redemptive knowledge, as it is primarily
vi Baptistic Theologies 6:1 (2014)

related to the person of Jesus Christ. Moreover, shared convictions form the
community of believers into a body of intentionality, and consequently also
into a communal ‘web’ of moral space, with shared values. Convictional
communities aim at developing covenanting relations and forming a form of
social life inclined to make moral interventions for the sake of God’s
Kingdom.
Stuart Blythe’s essay makes a fresh contribution to expanding on the
domain of convictional theologising by including afresh the voice of the late
Australian theologian and former alumnus of IBTS Athol Gill. Taking his
lead from the concept of ‘incarnational disciples’ developed in the work of
late Prof. Glen Stassen, Blythe identifies Gill as such a disciple – who have
proven faithful in times of trial. This faithfulness can be attributed at least in
part to their holding a set of convictions regarding Jesus Christ, the concern
of God for the world, and the necessity of resisting the injustice inflicted by
dominant ideologies. Blythe argues that the centrality of Jesus Christ as the
model for discipleship, the importance of community, and the holistic nature
of mission are at the heart of Athol Gill’s thought and actions. In Blythe’s
view Gill exhibited the qualities, which Stassen attributes to those who
should be recognised as notable examples of the Christian faith, by pursuing
these concerns often in the face of institutional and social conservatism.

The Editorial Board of Baptistic Theologies intends to make available
to our readers all contributions discussed at the conference and submitted for
publication in the subsequent issues of the journal. Our hope is that the
thoughts conferred at this international gathering of scholars will enhance,
refresh, enrich, and also challenge the discourse on convictional
theologising.

Parush Parushev
Ross, Attending to Global Christianity I 1

Attending to Global Christianity:1
I. Hospitality as Creating Space for the Other
Cathy Ross

Abstract: Discussing the theme of attending to the global Christianity, the
paper relates Christian mission work in the globalised world with the
venerated but often not hold firm to Christian virtue of hospitality. It reflects
on hospitality as a metaphor for mission in our world today. Hospitality is a
vital component of mission in believers’ daily lives; actual acts of hospitality
make Christians better disciples and ensure that another world is possible.
Keywords: hospitality, attentiveness, presence, marginality, creating space
Introduction
Ever since we left Aotearoa in New Zealand for the first time in 1985, and
have lived in a number of countries in Europe and East Africa, I have been
reflecting on hospitality. I have also been reflecting on hospitality as I have
observed it in practice in a range of church plants and missional communities
I have visited around England as part of an ongoing research project.
So, just what is hospitality? The online Oxford Dictionary defines it
as “the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors,
or strangers,”2 which is a good definition as it already implies, friendship,
generosity and attentiveness to the other – whether they be friend or stranger.
In the West, we have tended to water it down or commercialise it into an
industry with training courses, certificates, five star ratings and ‘meet and
greet’ attitudes. Increasingly, hospitality has also become a contested idea as
we face fear of the stranger and ambivalence towards engaging with the
other. However, hospitality is a fertile concept, full of potential and part of a
rich Biblical tradition echoing through the ages. Most of the ancient world
regarded hospitality as a fundamental virtue and practice, as do many
cultures still in our world today. In the Ancient Near East there was a sacred
bond between guest and host and when guest or host violated their
responsibility to each other, the world was shaken. The offering and
receiving of hospitality was holy ground.

1 These texts form the basis of the Nordenhaug Lectures, delivered by Dr Ross at the International Baptist
Theological Study Centre in Amsterdam in November 2013. “The Nordenhaug Memorial lectures” were
established in memory of Dr. Josef Nordenhaug, one-time President of the Baptist Theological Seminary,
Rüschlikon, Switzerland (1950 - 1960) and a former Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance (1960 -
1969).
2 http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/hospitality accessed 18 February 2015.
2 Baptistic Theologies 6:1 (2014)

Hospitality as welcome of the stranger
Israel experienced God as a God of Hospitality. Stories of hospitality are
foundational to their very existence and identity. These stories of hospitality
contain themes and tensions which resonate through the centuries – stories
of hospitality received and hospitality abused. The well-known story of
Abraham and Sarah welcoming three strangers brought them good news and
bad in the context of their hospitality. The guests confirmed they would have
a son in their old age, but they also warned Abraham of the impending
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Hospitality was considered an
important duty and often we see the hosts becoming beneficiaries of their
guests and strangers. So Abraham and Sarah entertained angels in Gen 18,
the widow of Zarephath benefited from Elijah’s visit (I Kings 17), and Rahab
and her family were saved from death by welcoming Joshua’s spies (Joshua
2). Christine D. Pohl remarks in her superb book on hospitality, Making
Room, Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, ‘The first formative
story of the biblical tradition on hospitality is unambiguously positive about
welcoming strangers.’3
The very etymology of the word “hospitality” is illuminating. In Latin
the word that signifies host is hospes and the word for enemy is hostis, from
which we derive hostile. So this suggests ambiguity and tension around the
concept of hospitality. However, the derivation from the Greek offers us
something slightly different. There is an interesting and intriguing
conundrum around the Greek word xenos which denotes simultaneously
guest, host, or stranger. The Greek word for hospitality in the New
Testament, philoxenia, refers not so much to love of strangers but to a delight
in the whole guest-host relationship and in the surprises that may occur. Jesus
is portrayed as a gracious host, welcoming children, tax collectors,
prostitutes, and sinners into his presence and therefore offending those who
would prefer such guests not to be at His gatherings. But Jesus is also
portrayed as vulnerable guest and needy stranger who came to his own, but
his own did not receive him (John 1:11). Pohl comments that this
‘intermingling of guest and host roles in the person of Jesus is part of what
makes the story of hospitality so compelling for Christians.’4 Think of Jesus
on the Emmaus Road as traveling pilgrim and stranger, recognised as host
and who he was in the breaking of bread during a meal involving an act of
hospitality. Or think of the Peter and Cornelius story (interestingly, another
story involving varieties of food)—who is the host and who is the guest?
Both offer and receive, both listen and learn, both are challenged and

3 Christine D. Pohl, Making Room, Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1999), p. 24.
4 Ibid., p. 17.
Ross, Attending to Global Christianity I 3

changed by the hospitality of the other. So we can see the importance of not
only the ambiguity but also the fluidity of the host/guest conundrum. We
offer and receive as both guest or stranger and host. In fact, strangers may
actually enhance our well-being rather than diminish it. The three major
festivals of the church—Christmas, Easter and Pentecost—all have to do
with the advent of a divine stranger. In each case this stranger—the baby, the
resurrected Christ, and the wind of the Holy Spirit—all meet us as
mysterious or strange visitors, breaking into our world, challenging our
worldviews and systems, and welcoming us to new worlds.5
Quaker scholar and educationalist Parker Palmer reminds us in his
intriguing book, The Company of Strangers: Christians and the Renewal of
America’s Public Life (1986), of the importance of the stranger. Our spiritual
pilgrimage is a quest, a venture into the unknown, away from safety and
security into strange places; for if we remain where we are, we have no need
of faith. The visitors to Abraham and Sarah and the stranger on the Emmaus
Road brought new truths to their lives. According to Palmer, we need the
stranger. In his view, ‘the stranger is not simply one who needs us. We need
the stranger. We need the stranger if we are to know Christ and serve God,
in truth and in love.’6 For him hospitality is:
…inviting the stranger into our private space, whether that be the space of our
own home or the space of our personal awareness and concern. And when we
do, some important transformations occur. Our private space is suddenly
enlarged; no longer tight, cramped, restricted, but open and expansive and free.
And our space may also be illumined… Hospitality to the stranger gives us a
chance to see our own lives afresh, through different eyes.7
So the stranger, the other, becomes a person of promise. The stranger may
be unsettling; the stranger may challenge or provoke us; the stranger may
provide a wider perspective. Remember the injunction from the book of
Hebrews: ‘Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Do not forget
to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels
without knowing it (13:2, NIV).’ Strangers save us from cosy, domesticated
hospitality and force us out of our comfort zones. Strangers may transform
us and challenge us. ‘Hospitality to the stranger gives us a chance to see our
own lives afresh, through different eyes.’8
Palmer goes on to consider the invitation of people into our private
space—probably our home. For most of us, our home is the place and space

5 See John Koenig, New Testament Hospitality, Partnership with Strangers as Promise and Mission
(Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, 2001), p. 5.
6 Parker J. Palmer, The Company of Strangers Christians and the Renewal of America’s Public Life (New
York: Crossroad, 1986), p. 131.
7 Ibid., p. 132.
8 Koenig, New Testament Hospitality, p. 6.
4 Baptistic Theologies 6:1 (2014)

we have available for hospitality. For a private culture, this may be a
challenge—to open up our home and offer it as a shared space. Yes, there is
risk involved, but when hospitality happens God is encountered in a new
way:
Hospitality questions one’s way of thinking about oneself and the other as
belonging to different spheres; it breaks down categories that isolate.
Hospitality involves a way of thinking without the presumption of knowing
beforehand what is in the mind of the other; dialogue with the other is
essential… To welcome the other means the willingness to enter the world of
the other...9
So hospitality is transformational, and it may also be deeply counter-cultural
in our current context.
To love our neighbour, to enter into the presence of another human
being, is to enter into the presence of God. In Genesis we are reminded that
all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-
27; 5:1-3; 9:6; 1 Corinthians 11:7; James 3:9). This is a profound way of
speaking about human nature. This provides our starting point for relating to
the stranger. As John Taylor reminds us in his book, The Go-Between God,
The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission, ‘If one is closed up against being
hurt, or blind towards one’s fellow-men, [sic] one is inevitably shut off from
God also. One cannot choose to be open in one direction and closed in
another.’10
This understanding of the image of God is integrally related to the
Trinity which means it is not primarily an individualistic understanding, but
a relational one. This can help us in our relating to the stranger. Paul Fiddes,
in his book, Participating in God, A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity, urges
us to do more than just imitate the triune God by actually participating in the
Trinity. He claims that this participation then enables us to truly appreciate
the other because of our engagement with the other. Engagement in the life
of God means an experience of otherness—the otherness of God from
humanity, the otherness of the Creator from the created. He writes:
Nothing in the world can prepare us for this gulf of otherness in a God who
abides in the unity of love. …Because it is an otherness which arises in
participation within God, it can only be known through participation. To
engage in the relationships in God means that we are brought up against the
challenge of the alien, the radically different, the unlike; but at the same time
we have the security of experiencing a fellowship more intimate than anything
we can otherwise know.11

9 Lucien Richard, OM, Living the Hospitality of God (New York: Paulist Press, 2000), p. 12.
10 John V. Taylor, The Go-Between God, The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission (London: SCM,
1972), p. 19.
11 Paul Fiddes, Participating in God, A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity (London: DLT, 2000), p. 55.